Parasitoids

Parasitoids of ants may occupy a variety of ecological niches within their host ant colony. Most are internal parasites of ant brood and ant adults. Many are hymenopterans and dipterans as well as Strepsipterans. There is another subset of parasitoids that attack myrmecophiles and other organisms living with the ants (eg. Horismenus, Microdonophagus). Ant parasitoids are a possible agent for biocontrol of pest ants. Most parasitoids are obscure and poorly known. Some species attack ants as well as other insect hosts.

Hymenoptera

Eucharitidae

Eucharitidae parasitize the immature stages of Formicidae and are among the most diverse hymenopteran parasitoids of eusocial insects. Females are oviparous and proovigenic and lay their eggs inside or on plant tissues, either individually or in masses. They oviposit away from the host, with the active first instar larva (planidium) responsible for getting into the ant nest through various associations with foraging adult ants. Once in contact with the larval ant host, the planidium either remains as an external parasite or burrows into the host. Upon pupation of the host, the larva migrates to the ventral region of the thorax, just posterior to the legs of the newly formed pupa, then resumes development through two additional instars. The adults emerge and leave the nest on their own or may be carried by the ants and deposited in the accumulation of colony waste.

Worldwide, approximately 700 Eucharitidae species attack five subfamilies across the ant phylogeny.

Eulophidae

The Eulophidae are a large family of hymenopteran insects, with over 4,300 described species in some 300 genera.

Eulophids are separable from most other Chalcidoidea by the possession of only four tarsomeres on each leg, a small, straight protibial spur (as opposed to the larger, curved one in most other chalcidoids), and by antennae with two to four funicle segments and at most 10 antennomeres.

Entedoninae

Entedoninae is a subfamily of wasps in the family Eulophidae which includes over 90 genera. Only a few species are associated with ants.

Microdonophagus

• 

REFERENCES

• Baker, Austin J., Heraty, John M. (2020): The New World ant parasitoid genus Orasema (Hymenoptera: Eucharitidae). Zootaxa 4888 (1): 1-84, DOI: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4888.1.1

• Gumovsky, A. Taxonomic notes on the entedonine genera Rhynchentedon and Pediobomyia (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Eulophidae) with the description of a new species.Zool. Med. Leiden 75 (14), 24.xii.2001: 229-238, figs 1-7.

• Hansson, Christer (2009): The genus Microdonophagus Schauff (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae), with description of a new species. Zootaxa 2200: 54-60, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.189612

• Hansson, Christer, Lachaud, Jean-Paul, Perez-Lachaud, Gabriela (2011): Entedoninae wasps (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea, Eulophidae) associated with ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in tropical America, with new species and notes on their biology. ZooKeys 134: 65-82

• Murray, E.A., Carmichael, A.E. & Heraty, J.M. (2013) Ancient host shifts followed by host conservatism in a group of ant parasitoids. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 280, 20130495.
• Schauff, M.E. 1986. Microdonophagus, a new Entedonine genus (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) from Panama. Proceedings of the Entomological Society in Washington, 88:167-170

• Torrens, J. 2013. A Review of the Biology of Eucharitidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) from Argentina. Psyche Volume 2013, Article ID 926572, 14 pages